Edward Henry Harriman

1848-1909

Railroad magnate and financier.

Harriman seems
an unlikely person to befriend John Muir. But Harriman, when ordered
by his doctor to take a vacation, organized the "Harriman Expedition"
to Alaska in 1899, to be accompanied by many prominent scientists
and writers of the time. Muir was invited to attend the expedition
aboard the George W. Elder.

Muir was reported to have said on the
trip, "I don't think Mr. Harriman is very rich. He has not as much
money as I have. I have all I want and Mr. Harriman has not." Harriman
apparently took this in good humor. He told Muir, "I never cared for
money except as power for work... What I most enjoy is the power of
creation, getting into partnership with Nature in doing good, helping
to feed man and beast, and making everybody and everything a little
better."

In 1908 Muir visited Harriman at his country lodge at Pelican
Bay on Klamath Lake, Oregon. To encourage Muir's book-writing, Harriman
instructed his private secretary to follow Muir around and record
in shorthand everything he said. The resulting transcript eventually
became The
Story of My Boyhood and Youth. Hariman also helped fund Muir's world travels by giving him free passage on his steamship lines.